Small but Perfectly Formed

Following on from the Goths are the Alans.  Both the DBA and ADLG lists give Alannic Horse Archers as an option in the Visigothic lists.  I thought they would make a nice change from Huns in that role, so I opted for them.  Having managed to confuse myself over the appearance of the Goths I was ready for even more confusion over the Alans.  

They seem to have originated as a fusion between a Sarmatian tribe and remnants of the Scythian Saka peoples,  They originally lived somewhere between the Black and Caspian seas.  The Romans knew of their existence as early as the reign of Augustus but didn't consider them as a threat as they were only raiding into Parthian territory.  From Hadrian's reign we have Arrian's 'Order of battle against the Alans' to fall back on for details of the tactics and by inference some evidence for their equipment.  This was written shortly after 135CE and describes Roman tactics and deployment against an Alanni raiding force which had entered the Eastern Roman province of Cappadocia, in what is now North Eastern Turkey.  There are other mentions of them in Cassius Deo and Tacitus and in Parthian and Persian sources.  Rome hired them as mercenaries and by the time the Notitia Dignitatum was drafted, had some regular cavalry units either made up of Alans or named for them and presumably equipped in a similar way.  Arrian terms them Scythians but the Parthians (who were of Scythian descent) said otherwise

The Alans were living in the south part of modern day Ukraine when the Goth's came along and settled slap bang in the middle of their lands.  This split them into two groups the eastern half were conquered by the Huns with survivors ended up in modern Ossetia.  The Western group eventually settled on the fringes of Brittany hence Alain being a common Breton name.  Along the way they seem to have hung onto their 'genetic' identity rather more successfully than the Goths as both groups are described as tall and blond with piercing blue eyes.  Even in the 21st century it is not uncommon for Ossetians to fit that description.  A third group settled in the north of Pakistan probably having moved with the White Huns who invaded that area, and have also kept their blond, blue eyed look.

I used a slightly heavier ink wash than normal...whaddya think?

And clearly I need to get a handle on the iPhones focal length

So we have a reasonable idea as to the background and physical appearance of the Alans but what of their clothing and equipment?  Other Sarmatian peoples had a liking for heavy cavalry in scale or lamella armour armed with a Kontos, sword and often a bow too.  The Alans seem to have followed that pattern.  Arrian certainly deployed his troops to deal with a frontal charge by heavy cavalry and made sure to anchor his flanks on higher ground. He instructed the first four ranks to use their pila as spears (some commentators seem to assume this means they had long spears but Arrian mentions the long iron shaft which sounds like a pilum to me) with rear ranks throwing 'javelins' and adding bow fire to the defence.  He notes that their horses lack armour and are vulnerable to missile fire but expects that they will always charge on sight.  That said they don't appear to have done so when faced with Arrian's deployment but why that was isn't certain.  Arrian's determination to have his flanks covered suggests that they had sufficient light cavalry to make an attempt to get around the flanks a real risk.  

I can't find much information on clothing for Alan light cavalry but I'd expect the standard steppe horse warrior tunic and trousers.  The tunic may still have had the overlap frontal fastening (a bit like a double breasted suit jacket) favoured by their Saka ancestors and Parthian light cavalry but the pointed three lappet cap seems to no longer be in use.  In 6mm I have gone for Late Roman horse archers rather than Saka/Scythian horse archers.  I went with pale tunics and bright coloured trousers as the main colour choice and of course lots of blond hair, blue eyes though are beyond me at this scale!  When I get around to adding heavy cavalry I will use a mix of armoured and unarmoured Sarmatian cavalry.

Oh and when I looked a bit closer it wasn't Alan at all, it was Dave.

Before we start let’s just park my dodgy dad jokes about black eye liner and black clothes right here shall we?  Good call, as this post actually came about as I tried to decide what colours to paint some Baccus 6mm gothic infantry and led to a bit of an argument from Google's wonderful (not wonderful in the least) AI assistant.  Again no jokes about needing to buy more black paint eh?  More on the failings of AI later.

Goths, or Vandals or Ostrogoths and even possibly Visigoths

We don't have a huge amount of information on the earliest Gothic people and there is a still some “healthy” debate as to where they originated.  Most of our sources come from the 'civilised' peoples around the Mediterranean and have to be taken with a pinch of salt as they tended to be biased about the hairy barbarian types beyond the frontiers!  The usual wargaming view is that Goths come in two flavours Visigoths and Ostrogoths (aka Tervingi and Greuthingi).  However, the Romans just called them all Goths until Attila's time, as they didn’t really have any information on the sub-divisions amongst them.  It wasn’t until after the fall of the Western Roman Empire that the term Visigoths came into use so that term isn't entirely useful either.  I'd say that they are Goths, then Goths and Ostrogoths then Visigoths and Ostrogoths once the Toulousean Kingdom is established in the mid 5th Century

The Goth's first came to the attention of the wider world while living in modern Ukraine in the area either side of the Dneiper River.  by the time that  Jordanes was writing in the 5th century the Goths themselves seem to have believed that they originally came from an island far to the north of the Ukraine.  That gives rise to the idea that they originated in Scandinavia supported by the names of areas in Southern Sweden like Gothenburg and Gotland.  However this may be a bit of a stretch, it's like suggesting that the town of Reading had ancient inhabitants who liked to peruse the written word more than their neighbours!  Still there is some archaeological evidence of a people related to the Goths and Vandals moving south through Poland and Western Russia.  For this period there is no solid evidence for the appearance of the Goths other than some grave goods.

Once in the Dneiper region the Vandals seem to have settled to the north of the Goths and the Goths them selves to have divided into the Tervingi west of the Dneiper and the Greuthingi to the east. They seem to have taken over some Alannic  terriotory splitting the Alans into a western and an eastern group.  What we do know is that a large proportion of the Tervingi moved ahead of the expanding horse tribes displacing the Carpi (a remnant Dacian people) in Transylvania on the way and ultimately bumping into the Roman frontier in the first part of the third century.  The remainder of the Goths and the eastern Alans became subjects of the Hunnic empire and eventually moved west along with them.

So what has the above Tourists guide to Europe for travelling barbarians got to do with the appearance of the Goths?  Well in part their appearance is connected to the people they met and intermarried along the way.  The Ostrogoths stayed in Hunnic territory and probably mixed with both Alanni and Hunnic types and possibly Heruls and Gepids.  The Visigoths on the other hand moved into the area occupied by the Carpi and so picked up some Dacian genomes before moving further along the frontier and mixing with other Germanic peoples..  Eventually they joined with the Vandals in Spain and North Africa as well as that part of the Alans who had also moved west ahead of the Huns.

We have some documentary evidence that suggests that the Goths favoured furs and animal skins over 'civilised' clothing.  I have read some sources which state that they carried their swords hanging from a baldrick type shoulder belt rather than suspending them from a belt Roman style.  Shields were round or oval.  I noted that the coffin style shield is not mentioned.  One source mentions green cloaks with red edges as being popular.  All of the images show them as wearing late Roman style tunics and trousers as a base layer.  Lastly there is some archaeological evidence suggesting that some Goth's took up the steppe nomad practice of skull binding.

I was initially interested in hair colour and this is where Google's AI comes into the story.  This tells me that the Goths were generally fair haired, being blonde, light brown or red brown hair coloured.  It also states that Visigoths were also fair haired.  Ask about Ostrogoths and the confusion starts.  The Ostrogoths, it tells me were dark haired with mostly dark browns and black predominating.  What it doesn't do is say what the source of that information is or for what period this covers.  I kind of get the feeling that the AI doesn't rank information sources by quality when deciding what to report but rather goes with quantity of supporting web sites (be they good, bad or indifferent).  I couldn't find any detailed  information regarding shield patterns and or colours either so it’s going to be guess work for that.  

So I decided on mostly fair haired tones with linens and mainly subdued natural coloured clothing with an above average (for my painting) amount of green tunics and cloaks.  Shields will be derived from later Roman patterns especially those associated with Goths, Vandals and Alans.  So at least the Goths are progressing (probably westwards in some haste!).

The Moors are coming along nicely.  As usual I'm starting by building a DBA3 army but will probably extend to a small L'Arte De La Guerre (ADLG) army later.  In part this is because DBA and ADLG have different ways of depicting the different parts of the army.  

With DBA there is a standard army of 12 elements which depicts the General, and his bodyguard, as one of those 12 elements and defines him as being a standard DBA troop type (with a bonus in combat).  ADLG on the other hand has generals either as a separate base that can be attached and unattached from any unit of the army or as an attached general permanently linked to a single unit (pretty much as in DBA).  On top of which many ADLG infantry units consist of the equivalent of two DBA elements.  That makes it easier (and cheaper) to start with the DBA version of an army, which is why I started where I have.  Come on you all knew I was a cheapskate!  ADLG also uses an army selection points system with standard games having a 200 point budget. There is a version closer to DBA army size using 100 or 120 points.  That said even at the lower point values an ADLG army is likely to have between 30 to 40% more bases than the DBA equivalent because of the infantry basing system.

Anyway back to the moors (cries of Cathy...Heathcliff in a strange North African tongue should now be ringing in your ears, No? OK maybe that's just me then?).  The General's element is now completed along with the additional infantry.  After some thinking and a query to the hive mind on TMP I decided to use Late Roman Heavy Cavalry castings to differentiate the General from his underlings...er... I mean brave fighting men.  I removed the Draco standard from the command figure group and replaced it with one based upon the Infantry standard.  Which may be wrong but at least it's a standard.

Or in this case 'The Moor the Merrier' or Mauri, it's the North West African chaps who are the focus of this post.  I was looking through my lead pile and realised that I had bought a couple or three packs of Moorish Infantry.  These were used for various Dark Age types like the Welsh Princedoms and Dal Radian Scots.  The castings are bare legged and only have a tunic so they can be pressed into service as any number of lower class skirmishing foot types in that period.  I have sufficient of those for the time being so I decided to use them as Mr Berry intended, well I had quite a lot of them more (or should that be moor) than enough to cover the DBA3 infantry requirements for a Later Moorish army.

With very little variation in clothing choices, which meant a restricted palette, painting looked like it was going to be easy.  White(ish) tunic,  some dyed cloaks dark skin tone and then just animal skin shields in a mid brown, hair in a dark colour and weapons.   Well at least it it looked easy!  Moors didn't have the really dark skins of Sub-Saharan Africans  so getting that shade right took a few goes and as for the white tunics....Arghh!  White is one of those colours which is difficult to shade (I really must try a contrast type white paint at some point) and it took me a few attempts before I came up with an system that I was happy with.

I started with a white undercoat courtesy of Halfords ever reliable rattle can automotive primer.  I pre-shading on that but didn't like the contrast it gave.  So I had a cup of tea and a bit of a think ( but didn't take off any handles or things what hold the candles*) and decided on a new approach.  I painted all the tunics in Vallejo Bone white which is more of a pale coffee brown and all the flesh in Vallejo German Camouflage Brown a darker mid brown with a hint of something else in the mix possibly blue.  Only then did I apply a thinned wash of GW Agrax Earth Shade.  After which I dry brushed the tunics in Vallejo Ivory and then picked out some high spots in Vallejo Pure White.  It sounds like a lot of work but it doesn't take as long as you might think.  Adding some variations between black and chocolate brown for hair and some pale brown for javelin shafts pretty much completed the main paining.  A coat of varnish and the final touch of silver for spear points and bronze to officers' helmets and that was job done.

A gratuitous close up so you can see the final effect on those pesky tunics

Basing is my usual block paving sand and fine flock patches.  I used less flock than normal as Moors live in the Semi-Arid lands of North West Africa.  I will have to order some Moorish cavalry next time I'm buying from Baccus, then the Moors can be off to the races (see what I did there?). I have completed 44 of the infantry to date and have a further 36 on the painting table nearing completion.

A few more Moors (sorry I couldn't resist it), there are more to come (sorry, not sorry)

The Moors are an interesting army in DBA, a general who is either cavalry or light cavalry, five Light Cavalry and six javelin armed foot who can be a mix of  light infantry or fast auxilia. Not a lot of punch but a whole lot of nuisance value.

As an aside, and I may already have posted about this.  I read something on a blog a while ago which has been a game changer in terms of brush care.  The occasional use of alcohol based hand sanitiser gel to clean brushes!  The gel means it sticks to the brush and it removes acrylic paint a treat, being clear also means you can see what is being shifted too.  It doesn't seem to damage the glue holding the hair in place, although I take the precaution of washing them out in warm water with a drop of Mrs E's shampoo in it afterwards.  After a second rinse they get a bit of hair conditioner then a final rinse and dry.

* For the education of younger readers go look for Bernard Cribbins' song "Right Said Fred".  It's a tale of the trials and tribulations of two removal men.  As an aside we had a second hand upright piano when I was very young that had both handles and things what held candles!  Life eh?

Edited 24 November 2024 to remove some typos I spotted

 A number of years ago I added a plea onto the Baccus forums for the esteemed Mr Berry to create a range of early Byzantines so I could replace my venerable Irregular Miniatures army.  At the time the response was that it may happen but not in the immediate future.  However, I wanted a Byzantine army, specifically one for the 5th - 6th centuries, so I decided to proxy other Baccus figures to that very end.    Sassanid regular infantry had a suitably large shield so I started there and though I say so myself they don't look too bad, yet they were not perfect.  In my mind's eye I had an image of the old Hinchcliffe 25mm figures but in glorious 6mm, but needs must and all that.  At 'The other Partisan' last month I bought some of Mr B's Hunnic Noble to serve as, well, Hunnic Nobles, but also to proxy for Boukellariioi for Belisarius or Narses.  This week in a fit of enthusiasm I started to work on a second unit of Skoutatoi.  No sooner had I started then 'bingly bong' goes my mobile phone to alert me to the fact that Baccus 6mm have launched a new range for a new period.  Yes you guessed it the period is 'Late Antiquity' and the range 'Early Byzantines'.

So this is the cause of my mixed emotions the infantry are exactly what I was dreaming of but I already have proxy troops for that role.  I almost wish that they were not what I wanted, but the entire range is perfect!  Damn you Mr Berry, now I think I may be falling prey to some form of compulsive behaviour disorder.  This is caused by knowing that the exact figures I want are out there so my lovingly proxied Sassanids are no longer ticking the right boxes.  I must have proper Byzantines, I need proper Byzantines!!!

Not 'proper Byzantines' but I was happy with them until.....

So in due course I will, of course, weaken and buy said 'proper Byzantines' the only question remaining is what to do with the demobilised Sassanid proxies, other than use them as Sassanid regular infantry (well that would be too easy wouldn't it).

Proper Byzantines!  (image from the Baccus 6mm catalogue)

Other than the above mixed emotions the new range looks really useful.  It will cover Justinian Byzantines and Maurikian Byzantines, it has the Avar influenced half armoured cavalry (drool)) as well as lance and bow armed heavy cavalry.  At a push it would cover Byzantine armies through to the introduction of the kite shield in the late 10th Century.  The castings look excellent, you can see them here Baccus 6mm and the later Byzantines from the early Medieval range are here Baccus 6mm.  I now have a terrible stabbing pain in my wallet!

The Dacian DBA baseline army is complete along with a few extra options.  I make it 17 elements which gives me some extras for the basic 12 elements as well as some of the alternative elements from the list like the Sarmation loose order Knights (3Kn).

 Its been few weeks since I did any updates on the Dark Ages campaign.  My focus has been elsewhere mostly on painting figures and for the last week or so on pushing on with the ECW rules.  I'm hoping to be able to post a rules update in the next couple of days as I have made some substantial progress on that project.

Meanwhile back in Dark Ages.  I have decided not to fight the small unbalanced campaign actions in every case.  So the Devet v Seisyllwch battle will be solved by the simple expedient of Devet accepting it's new status as a client or sub princedom of it's larger neighbour.  I have rather a lot of time to cover within the campaign and if I want to get to the end I'm going to need to speed things up.  Plus it lets me get to the more interesting table top encounters.  So Devet falls without a fight and the game rolls onwards.

Looking back at the list of events for this turn, we now move on to the last event of 799AD.  Northumbria attacking Strathclyde by striking into Rheged.  

By 799AD Northumbria's power was concentrated to the east of the Pennines and that is how the game is set up.  The North West was contested ground under Strathclyde Welsh influence (if not outright control) in Cumbria and loosely Northumbrian in the areas south of that.  The nature of government in Northumbria at this point was such that central authority was often lacking and control ceded to local leaders who made their own way without much thought, or care, for who the king was.  It was only where a strong king arose that this changed and historically that didn't happen very often.  

In modern terms Northumbria was a failed state.  There had been a generation of in fighting between rival branches of the royal line over which line should sit on the throne and this continued right into the mid 9th century, when one claimant allied himself with the sons of Ragnar Lothbrok.  Lets just say that it didn't end well. If you have read the Last Kingdom books or watched the TV series based upon the same you will have come across them as leaders of the first wave of Viking invasions.

Looking at the available forces in the game The Strathclyde Welsh can assemble the men of Galloway, Strath Clut and Rheged itself.  While Northumbria can count on Lothene, Berneich and possibly Cumbre.  I say possibly for Cumbre, as I have designated that region as disputed but occupied by Northumbria so the Cumbrians will act as allies and may be unreliable.

The available forces will be maximised as both kings are present so the line ups look like this:

Strathclyde

Strat Clut: King (Cv), 3 x Sp (reduced by battle losses)

Rheghed: 1 x Gen (Cv), 3 x Sp (reduced by battle losses)

Galloway: 1 x Gen (Cv), 1 x Cv, 3 x Sp

Strathclyde is carrying losses from the clash with the Picts earlier in the turn so are only able to turn out 13 elements.  They cannot deploy in two bodies as they don't meet the minimum element count  I set in the rules to do so.

Northumbria

Lothene: 1 x Gen (4Bd), 3 x Sp, 1 x Ps

Berneich: King (4Bd), 3 x 4Bd, 7 x Sp, 3 x Hd, 1 x Ps

Cumbre: Gen (Sp), 1 x Ps

Northumbria has maximised the available troops so as to be able to have two commands and is fielding 22 elements.  They will field The men of Berneich as a single command and merge Cumbre and Lothene into a second.  As a disputed territory Cumbre will count as allied and may not be reliable on the battle field. 

The Pictish Forces are advancing from the North East and near an insignificant settlement called An Cladach they clash with the Dal Raitian royal army.  The Dal Raitian Scots are defending and the invading Picts are being run by the AI rules.  I am again using De Bellis Solitarius which are available as a free download from the Fanaticus and other, websites.  Versions are available for DBA 2.0 and 3.0 and I find that they give an interesting game by virtue of setting constraints on what the AI side is allowed to do while allowing player input within those constraints.  Before the game started I decided on the Scots deployment.  I then rolled up the Picts overall tactical stance for the encounter and then their deployment.  Think of that as the commanders pre-battle briefing from the CinC something like:

"Right settle down and listen up,  here is the plan.  We outnumber them almost two to one so they either have to hit us hard and fast before we have the line properly set up or they will want to defend and use the ground to their advantage.  If they attack their initial charge is a problem but if we stack the spearmen deep we should be able to absorb the impact.    

Moravin, you have the larger command so act aggressively, I'm putting you out on the right flank with Mar.  You have the majority of the mounted lads so if you get a chance to get around their flank, take it. Especially if you see a chance to attack their camp.  Nothing like having your women attacked to take a man's mind off the fighting eh?  

I will be in the centre with the rest of the Army, so that's you three, Strath Erin, Athfotla and Monath.  Your boys will hold the centre and cover our camp.  Nothing too clever required there, I think we can hold back in a defensive posture and see how things develop on the right.  If they attack us then all the more space on the flank for the mounted lads to use.  I'm pretty sure their entire strength is in the field against us but I'm not ignoring the risk of them trying to land behind our flank from boats.  Moravin the beach is on your flank so have a think about about what you might do to cover that eventuality will you. 

Everyone happy?  Excellent well grab what sleep you can and we shall see what the morning brings."

Or as the dice rather more prosaically gave me; place the camp as near the centre line as possible and behind any available bad going.  Command 1 (The King with  8 elements) deploy in the centre with a defensive stance.  Command 2 (11 elements) deploys on the right flank and takes an aggressive stance.  Pike form up two deep if facing warbands.  Fastest troops deploy on the end of the line.  

The Scots have 11 elements to deploy including the King.  There is nothing to loose and a defensive strategy just will not cut it.  The Scots will probably never have more men in the field than they have today, so they have to take the fight to their Pictish cousins.  Accordingly I have decided to go with a littoral landing.  That will be on the Pictish Right which it turns out are under orders to be aggressive and so with any luck it will land behind their flank.

The Scots briefing is an altogether more downbeat affair.

'Alright then sit down and take a drink it may be the last one you get from me.  You all know the Picts outnumber us and have a point to prove having had a beating from the Strathclyders of late.  They have crossed the mountains to get at our heartlands so I doubt they just want to talk.  Tomorrow is going to be bloody, the only question is whose blood will be on the heather?

We don't have the luxury of giving up this ground and there are no reinforcements coming. What we do, win or loose, we do with the men we have, here, at this place.  They will come on fast and that is our one advantage as it will give us the option of turning their flanks.  I will have the main body but  you Comgail,  you will lead a small group to land on the beach behind them.  Hit them in the flank or rear and hit them hard.  Make them rue the day they came to Dal Raitia.  You will be the hammer, we will be the anvil and between us I intend to crush them.  Now go see to your men, tell them of certain victory on the morrow and, remind them that they are fighting for their homes and families.

The Day of Battle

'The day of battle  dawned and looked set fair so the fight commenced almost immediately. Our landing party sprang into action as soon as the Picts were in reach and charged up the beach into the end of their line.  Two units of Pictish light horse turned to meet the threat.  Meanwhile our main line advanced as quickly as they could but it was clear that the landing party would be on their own for a wee while.  We could tell that the attack from the beach had the Picts rattled as their advanced stopped dead on that flank.'  

1. The armies deployed -landing party ready to storm up the beach!

A good opening pip score allows the out of command littoral landing to get into contact with the end of the Pictish line.  In their turn both Pictish commands get abysmal pip scores and low aggression scores meaning that the right hand command who are meant to be moving up stall as their flank units have to deal with the Scottish attack. The left hand command does manage to advance to occupy the boggy ground to their front.  This was repeated for the next two turns where the Picts consistently rolled single pips for both commands.

'We couldn't believe that the beach attack had thrown the enemy into such confusion, we could see that the fighting was muckle fierce on that flank and one group of Pictish light horse was soon destroyed.  The rest of that wing seemed incapable of reacting to the attack.  Our main body continued to push forward towards the enemy with our wilder tribesmen leading the advance.'

2. Picts in a pickle - down one LH already

I roll two dice for each Pictish command the large dice is the aggression for this turn the smaller the Pip score.  The aggression roll is adjusted based on the starting aggression and the pip score.  The photo below shows just how bad the Pictish rolls were!

3. On the defensive. Awful dice mean the Picts cannot put attacks together!

5. The Scots have a decent defensive line at least

With the dawning of 799AD comes new strife. It's in the North in the lands of the Picts and Scots where a dispute over the little travelled region of Comgail has erupted into armed conflict. Although nominally allied under a single family in reality there are different clan allegiances within the ruling blood lines and it is by no means certain which line of descent will rule North of the Forth- Clyde line.  The Pictish side of the family have decided to strengthen their hand or at least weaken the Dal Raidian side

The Picts have assembled a royal army led by High-King  Caustantin mac Fergus which extends the area they can recruit from.  The Dal Raidian Scots have a much smaller recruitment base but are assembling every fighting man they can muster under their King Taidg mac Donncoirce.  For this clash the forces arrayed are as follows:

Pictia will have two commands.  King Caustantin has the first command of 8 elements and the Mormaer of Moravin commands the second made up of 12 elements.  These consist of:

• The King (Cv) plus 1 x Cv, 4 x 3Pk and 2 x Ps.
• Mormaer of Moravin (Cv) plus 1 x Cv, 2 x LH, 5 x 3Pk and 2 x Ps.

While Dal Raidia is fielding a single command of 11 elements commanded by King Taidg

The King (4Ax) plus 3 x 4Ax, 5 x 3Wb and 2 x Ps

This is the second outing for the Picts in this campaign turn and losses from the earlier fighting have reduced their numbers.  Strath Erin is still recovering from casualties suffered against the men of Alt Clut.

The Dal Raidian Scots will be the defenders and will choose the terrain.  The dice gave me the Scots so I can determine the terrain without using the solo rules.  Their home terrain is Littoral so I chose a waterway (compulsory) a difficult hill, a marsh and a woods.  It will look something like the image below.  Picts deploy on the bottom edge Scots on the top.

It will look something like this.

In reality we don't know for certain who was king of Dal Raidia at the turn of the 8th Century.  the Annals of Ulster give names but these may have only been kings of the Irish Dal Raidians.  Still I needed a name for the campaign so King Taidg mac Donncoirce it is.

back when I war gamed with 25mm Hinchcliffes I bought a copy of 'What the Soldiers wore on Hadrian's Wall' from lovely little bookshop on The Shambles in York.  Long gone now of course as online book stores have conquered most of the world.  The book was written by H Russell Robinson and illustrated by Ronald Embleton.  

A classic and still worth a read

It has some lovely colour plates including this one which was Late Imperial Roman period.  As a modeller the thing which grabbed my attention was the nice simple shield pattern and a British association to boot! The booklet only describes the carriers as Roman soldiers of the 4th Century.

It's the shield that grabbed my attention.

The same pattern (albeit the other way up) crops up again in the Osprey Men at Arms title 'The Roman Army from Hadrian to Constantine' again illustrated by Ronald Embleton.

It's that shield again

The same shield (perhaps) this time described as Infantrymen c. 300 - 400AD.  There is still no identification of the unit or where the design comes from.  It's not in the Notitia Dignitatum and the Osprey simply states the design is associated with infantry of the period in the sketches...of H Russell Robinson.  

I hunted but could find no source for the shield but it was a nice simple design pattern to pain and one of my Hinchcliffe legions received it.  Since then I have reproduced the shield on 6mm Late Imperial Romans from irregular miniatures and am currently re doing that unit using Baccus 6mm figures.  However, in the 30 odd years since putting brush to 25mm Hinchcliffe legionary I had never found any original source for the design or even anything close.

Then in one of those little side expeditions we all tend to take when looking something up on Google I found this.  It comes from this really useful site http://lukeuedasarson.com/NotitiaPatterns.html in the section discussing the authenticity of the illustrations in the Notitia.  In a link to an article on Roman Shield patterns of the 3rd Century I spotted this which is from Piazza-Amerina Mosaics a set of 4th Century hunting scenes.

At last I found a source

I still can't tie it back to an actual military unit but at least I have a clear example of the basic design.  some times Google really does come good.

Its the start of the third hour of this battle (in game time).  The Mercian shield wall pushes back in the centre but make little headway.  They are slowly and methodically setting up a shield wall on their left and have rushed what troops they can towards the river bank on their right.  It would help if they could roll well just once.  The West Saxon reply is to keep the meat grinder going in the centre and to push more troops across the river on their left.  On their right where they really need to disengage they roll 1 pip!  It's not just the Mercians the dice have it in for.  The only good news for the hard pressed West Saxon right is that the Mercians just can't get a decisive attack in to push the command over the edge, all they achieve is a series of recoil results which helps the West Saxons by opening up some space between the lines. 

1. Fighting on the river bank as the Wessex Left command attempts to cross

The next few turns see the West Saxon left slowly chip away at the Mercian command facing them.   The Mercians are hampered by inconsistent dice rolls, whenever they have the chance to be aggressive the pip dice is against them.  As a result they are forced to give up the defence of the river bank allowing the West Saxons to gain a toe hold.

The end of the affair but both sides have suffered heavy casualties

Just a quick update on the rules this time.  I looked at the next field action (Wessex invades Hwicce) and realised that the numbers of troops available was going to get out of hand using the troop selection rules as originally planned (something like 10,000 v 9300 a side in game statistic terms if each element is 240 men).  While I know it's only a game and what really matters is the number of elements on the table, in this case 42 v 30, it still didn't sit right with me. So I wondered how I could restrict the troop numbers without making fights between single provinces become mere skirmishes (which might actually be the proper interpretation).

An evening's reading around on military obligations (and a well spent hour reading a paper on the location and etymology of muster points and what it meant for army logistics in Wessex, not core to the point, but very interesting) suggested that for the Anglo-Saxons and Welsh I was giving too free a hand for troops to leave their own regions.

I already knew that the system of Anglo-Saxon organisation for active duty within the Fyrd changed in the reign of Alfred the Great but in the interests of simplicity I have decided to use a similar logic from the start of the game and for all nations apart from the Danes and Norse viking raids. I already have a different system for them intended to create a series of escalating raids until a 'Great Army' can be recruited.

As before available troops can join an army in their own province or an adjacent province to their own. and if the king commands he can levy troops from additional provinces by raising from provinces adjacent to those normally raised.  So those adjacent to those adjacent to the muster province, if that makes sense.  To offset the impact of the king being present I will require his element to be the command element and increase his chance of death.  Well Kings have to be seen to lead from the front, at least in my world view.

Troops will be broken down into three levels of availability:

• First Tier - Personal troops of generals.  These go where their Lord goes.  In terms of Anglo-Saxons in the DBA lists these are the 4Bd Hird.  I have also included Psiloi as there are always a few youths ready to go off on an adventure.  All of these troops can be raised in the muster province and adjacent provinces.
• Second tier - 50% are available when attacking and 100% when defending.  These are the Anglo-Saxon Sp Select Fyrd.  These can be raised in their own and adjacent provinces.
• Third Tier - Raised to defend their own province only these are the Anglo-Saxon 7Hd Great Fyrd.

You might have thought that with the lockdown forcing us all to stay at home that I would have done a lot of figure painting, but in reality what has happened is that I have slowed down. I suspect that this is because I'm still working, albeit from home and I'm relatively busy with work.  I was already working that way for a part of each week so I have a desk in the box bedroom which I laughingly call my office This is the same room where I have my painting desk setup and after a day sat there working the idea of spinning the chair around 90 degrees to the painting table isn't as attractive as it was before lockdown.

Still despite all of that I have managed to  move on with some projects.  The Picts and Scots-Irish have full DBA armies now covering the early medieval parts of those lists.  There are reinforcements from Irregular Miniatures in the post for the Picts.  These will let me cover the earlier period of their list to provide an opponent for my Late Imperial Romans, by adding Attacotti and chariots to the mix along with more spears and cavalry.  I have also painted up some more of the 1/2400th Ironclads from Tumbling Dice.

The painting table itself currently has more Sassanids which when painted and based will complete the basic 200pt ADLG army.  There are more Late Roman horse and foot plus some Huns and Goths.  Lastly a few command figures for various of my Dark Age armies so I can morph them to ADLG from DBx.  Oh and some Sassanid armoured spearmen who are going to be the test for proxying as Maurikian Byzantine Skoutatoi.

Fearing the growing  power of the Pictish Kingdom Riderch King of Strathclyde has determined on a show of force.  The target is the region of Menteith to the immediate North West of Strat Clut and an important link between Pict and Scot's-Irish lands.  Riderch gathers all his might at Cambuslang and heads North.  He is met close to Mucetauc (Modern Mugdock in Sterlingshire) by a force lead by the Mormaer of Menteith supported by the men of  Fib and Strath Erin.  This is close by the site of an actual real world battle between Strathclyde and the Picts a century earlier.

I diced for sides and the Picts fell to be managed by the solo rules.  These determined that they would be formed up in five groups (the DBA solo rules require groups of no more than four elements and cavalry to be in two groups which means that the first turn for the AI is usually sorting the groups out to a more sensible arrangement I think I want to change this).  The Pictish spearmen (3Pk) were two elements deep in two groups on a crestline in the centre.  Cavalry and Light Horse on their right and Light Infantry on the left.  The plan was for the spearmen to push forwards with the horse and light Infantry protecting the flanks of the spearmen.

The initial deployment.  Picts are furthest away

On my side after the Pictish defenders had deployed I placed my Spearmen in two lines in the centre with a frontline wide enough to overlap the Pictish spearmen on both ends of their line and as far forwards as possible.  All my cavalry bar one element on my left facing the Pictish horsemen and all the Light Infantry along with the remaining cavalry element on my right.  My plan was to engage the two flank groups and hold them back while dealing with the main Pictish threat in the centre.

You know what they say about plans though!

The overall tactical stance of the Picts was aggressive which to be fair to the solo rules seemed right given the situation.  They started with a general advance and closed up the two groups of infantry in the centre into one body.  Their cavalry pushed ahead of the centre trying to engage the Welsh cavalry and prevent it getting around the back of the main body.  In response the Britons of Strathclyde push their own cavalry forward to clash with the Pictish light cavalry who form the front line opposite them.  In the combat they destroy one LH element and recoil the others, 0-1 to the Welsh.

The Pictish massed spears pour down from the distant ridge

The Picts continue to plod forwards in the centre and a swirling cavalry melee erupts on their left wing as they feed the second line of cavalry into the fight.  They destroy a Welsh cavalry element 1-1.  In return the Welsh also feed their reserves into the cavalry fight but then seem to loose all of the fights with recoils along the line.  Those Pictish light cavalry are tougher than they look.  On the other wing the light infantry fight is inconclusive although the lone unit of welsh cavalry does get into a flank position.  Next turn the Picts get the dreaded single pip just when they don't want it.  They elect to continue to push the mass of spearmen forward but this means that there is no movement on the two flanks and the centre is starting to push too far ahead of it's flank guards.

So far so good the Pictish infantry have advanced beyond their supports

In response the Britons withdraw their centre and try to reform line with their horse.  Over on the right the light infantry fight is still see sawing.

The Strathclyde Welsh refuse their centre

The Pictish command still favours aggressive action but doesn't have the pip score to do all it would like.  They prioritise stabilising the cavalry wing and attacking with their light infantry while they still have it to attack with.  They manage to destroy one light infantry element making it 2-1 to the Picts.  The Welsh get a good pip score and take the opportunity to deploy their reserve of spearmen.  One unit moves into the front line and the remaining two head out over towards the right wing in case the light infantry fail to hold over there.  The cavalry regroup but loose another cavalry element in the melee. 3-1 to the Picts.  This was not how the plan was meant to unfold!

The Picts continue in their attempt to come to grips with the Welsh shield wall but are still a move away from contact.  To try to offset the overlap on their spearmen they add a light Infantry element to the end of the line.  On the left flank things are falling apart with another Welsh light infantry unit destroyed, 4-1 to the Picts and only two elements off the Strathclyde Welsh's breakpoint!  The Welsh can see the day slipping away from them and having a reasonable pip score they advance in the centre hoping it isn't too little too late.

The Welsh centre commits and starts to turn the left flank of the Picts

The dice Gods now turn their face away from the painted men of Pictia and narrow their options with a low pip score.  In a do or die move the surviving Pictish light infantry attempts to hold the Welsh cavalry in place for a turn to prevent a camp run.  They hold for a turn and then succumb to a flank attack from the Welsh spear reserves. In the centre the main infantry action starts.  Pictish 3Pk stacked up two deep for a cumulative opening factor of six against Welsh spear on a basic factor of four.  Again the dice Gods turn away and the Picts only kill one spear element in the first round of combats 5- 2 to the Picts.  In an equivalent to Wellington shouting 'Now Maitland. now's your time!' the Welsh close onto the flanks of the Pictish Infantry line and attack all along the line.  It will only take one Welsh loss and it is all over.  The first attack goes in with flank support and the Pict Light infantry recoil, except they can't,  5-3 Another kill in the centre of the line 5-4 and the flank attack on the other end of the line kills another element 5-5!  There are some Welsh cavalry on the field ...they think it's all over! and with the destruction of one more element it is, the Welsh have pulled it out of the bag.

There are some Picts left but they are all intent on going home, without further delay

Menteith has passed into Strathclyde Welsh control.  There were no command casualties, but there will be lamentations in Pictia and Strathclyde for the small folk who never came away from this field.

Strathclyde losses
Strat Clut 1 x Cv, 1 x Sp, 1 x Ps.
Rheghed  1 x Cv, 1 x Ps

Pictish losses
Menteith    1 x Ps (now SC Welsh)
Fib             1 x 3Pk, 1 x Ps
Strath Erin 1 x 3Pk, 1 x LH, 1 x Ps

These casualties will have an effect in later games in this five year turn as destroyed elements from this fight will not be available until the next full game turn and Strathclyde are to be attacked by Northumbria and the Picts are attacking the Dal Raitian Scots.

I learned that a solid wall of spears can hold off a pike armed body but only once they start to get overlaps can they do real damage to them.  Pike have to be used aggressively before their flanks can be turned.  Light Cavalry are stronger in these rules against cavalry than I expected and light infantry are a nuisance if allowed to do what they want so they have to be neutralised early. 

Strathclyde Welsh figures are from Baccus’ Goth range.  The Picts are from Irregular.  Buildings are Leven and 2D6 Miniatures.  The sharp eyed will have noticed that I had to proxy some figures as I need more Picts and Strathclyde Welsh.  I really wish someone did some Picts that were a better match for the Baccus figures. Plus I need to do something a bit more creative with the built up area than dumping buildings on a bit of felt!

Last but not least the chronicles have another entry.

798 AD In this year in spring, on the 25th day of May, there was a great battle at Mucetauc in Pictia and there the Peithwyr were put to flight by the Britons of Alt Clut and divers were slain of both peoples.  Such a slaughter has not been in these lands since the time of the Romans.